Mitt Romney made a bid to be the first Mormon president of the United States on Tuesday, seeking to win the Republican Party nomination by touting family values, small government and a hard line against terrorism.

The former Massachusetts governor's views on immigration, gay marriage, abortion and capital punishment are expected to appeal to the party's conservative base who have been put off by the more liberal leanings of the current front-runners, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and Senator John McCain.

"Today as we stare at the face of radical violent jihad and at the prospect of nuclear epidemic, our military might should not be subject to the whims of ever-changing political agendas," he told a cheering crowd gathered in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan as he declared his candidacy.

Romney, whose father served as Michigan's governor for six years, pledged to block Iran's nuclear ambitions, warned of a "second aspiring tyrant" in Latin America and said the US role in the world must be "to lead, to serve and to share".

"America must never engage and negotiate with jihadists who want to destroy us, destroy our friends and destroy our way of life," he said before warning that Democratic plans to withdraw US forces from Iraq would be "devastating".

"So long as there is a reasonable prospect of success, our wisest course is to seek stability in Iraq, with additional troops endeavoring to secure the civilian population."

Romney is currently polling in fourth place among declared or undeclared Republican candidates with about three to five percent of the Republican vote.

Front-runner Giuliani holds 34 percent of the vote, followed by McCain at 22 percent of Republicans and former house speaker Newt Gingrich who has garnered 15 percent of the vote, according to a Fox News poll conducted January 30 to 31 with a margin of error of five percentage points.

A Boston, Massachusetts businessman, Romney first entered politics in 1994, when he unsuccessfully challenged Ted Kennedy for his Massachusetts Senate seat.

In 1999 he was brought in to rescue the scandal-tainted organization of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, earning plaudits for his handling of the games.

Source: China Daily/agencies